Dammit, it's the tone that the pond objects to ... just read that opener again ...
When it comes to the pandemic, some can afford an ideological viewpoint. They can rail against restrictions and demand we start “living with the virus”. At the same time, they may oppose compulsory vaccinations in employment settings and “vaccine passports”, citing freedom, liberty and choice.
Dammit, that's a direct attack on the dog botherer and his talk of badges on the chest and tattoos and railing at masks and zombies in the suburbs and such like, and other reptiles of a like mind, wanting to open up ...
Yes, face the tough truth. Let the killings begin in earnest. Why if NSW can lead the way, we can show the rest of the country what for ...
Poor old Gracie and her mindset, worried about the killing fields and people lining up to make claims ...
Not to worry, Gracie, a solution is at hand ...
Even better, United offered vaccination or termination ... so might not the reptiles require $200 a word for reptiles of the dog botherer kind scribbling nonsense and putting their fellow employees and their employer in danger?
Just a passing though as the pond moves on to the bromancer ...
A couple of notes. Given the botched exit, there was no way that security was going to be guaranteed. And when the bromancer has every reason to suspect Taliban complicity, there's every reason that he doesn't have a clue as to what might have gone down... because it's a fact-free opinion...
These are strange times. In the WaPO, you might read Can the Taliban become a reliable partner to the US?
And if the paywall defeats you, you could always head off to the Graudian for The west has to ask itself: if IS is the enemy, does that make the Taliban our friends?
The pond isn't inclined to be friends with the Taliban - never mind all the stonings and beheadings and the mistreatment of women, they also murdered music - but it is true that IS is inspired by the sort of fundamentalist Wahhabism that emanated from Saudi Arabia ...
Oops a daisy ...
Oh it was only the cold-blooded murder of a journalist ...
No doubt there will be some who take a fence or a gate at that portrait, but back to the bromancer, lathering himself up into a state of righteous indignation, as only right wing nut jobs with a profound memory lapse can do ...
It's terribly reassuring to read that no-one could support the USalliance more than the bromancer, even though it's analliance with incompetents, fools, dropkicks and losers ...
A bit like being sent to spend time with all the dowdy girls reading Sartre in the Tamworth High School playground while the flash girls went with the thugby league jocks ...
Never mind, no point being bitter, there's still much to traverse ... because the bromancer feels slighted, and ignored ...
Yes that's how dire things have got. The bromancer with a kind word for Hillary ... here, have a celebratory cartoon, and see if you can spot the bromancer ...
And so back to the never-ending gobbets of chunky bromancer goodness ...
Could the pond extend that a little to ask if anyone believes anything anyone says anymore, thanks in no small part to Faux Noise, the GOP, the fellow travelling reptiles and assorted loons of the orange kind ...
Please allow the bromancer to add yet more to the forever war of words ...
Oh come now, such insights should be reserved for prattling Polonius, finding strategic victory in Vietnam ... but surely there's been enough dumping on jolly Joe by now, surely it's time to wrap things up ...
Well that's very gloomy, and likely to put the fear of the long absent lord in "Ned's" nattering, but isn't there good evidence that the Taliban has reformed?
Of course it all might have been different if the gung ho nutjobs hadn't been so gung ho way back when ... but it's not what they do that counts, it's what they say, and then what they say when they've changed their minds, and then when they've changed their minds again, what they have to say in another say, and so on down the ages ...
Still the pond is glad the bromancer has finished, because frankly he's terrified little children and old men with his horror stories and dire predictions.
No where is this more evident than in nattering "Ned's" offering this weekend.
The pond baulked at running with "Ned" yesterday, because even by "Ned's" Everest standards, it was long and tedious ...
But Sunday? What the hell Archie, toujours gai ... especially if reading it is refracted through the realisation that "Ned" got a hell of a fright at recent news, suddenly saw what it was like to have the US as an ally, and so retreated, as old folk are wont to do, into the dim and distant past, seeking reassurance from the good old days ...
Look, men in suits, not a woman in sight, and even a double breaster being worn. How reassuring is that?
Now the pond could have gone the short and easy route, and settled for a simpleton reptile mischief maker of the oscillating fan kind ...
But the pond is made of sterner stuff, and is willing to nod off during a history lesson, especially one delivered by "Ned", without any hint of his podcast hovering into sight ...
Uh huh, and then "Ned" resorted to the sort of pedagogical trick that used to send the pond into a frenzy. Now children, how did Ming the merciless produce a wondrous treaty and end up bogged down in a meaningless war in Vietnam? Easy peasy ... show a snap of Hawkie ...
By golly, the pond could feel the surge of excitement in "Ned's" loins at the thought of Ronnie of raygun fame ...
Built on brandy! Or perhaps brandy jelly ... and here the pond must note an ominous touch, as the reptiles begin dividing Ned by headings, and we know what that means ... we're barely at base camp ...
At the sight of Ming the merciless, the pond began to tune out, but "Ned" was only just beginning to crank into gear ...
It was about this point that the pond began to wonder if "Ned's" triumphalism, his reversion to the days of his youth, had been driven by the bromancer's assault on the alliance, and his assault on jolly Joe and all the bloody incompetent useless Americans who'd mucked things up, and nothing to do with Australia, thank you very much ...
And yet, and yet, all around is gloom and disaster and portents of doom ... rarely has a treaty hitched us up to such a bunch of dropkick losers ...
Come on back, bromancer, remind "Ned" of the hard, gloomy facts. By the end of his piece, the pond reckons "Ned" will have joined the polar bear club in a brisk swim in the freezing waters of reality ...
Not to worry, whatever the bromancer might think, "Ned" is still warming up ... go on "Ned", keep the good history rolling ...
And what a fine flowering has followed from that ...
Sorry, do go on, so much triumphalism, so much grasping at reassurance, so little time ...
Yes, yes, token nods to Labor appreciated, but let us proceed to the real triumphs, still being celebrated in the streets of Kabul today ...
Indeed, indeed, it's been a splendid result all round, what with the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, and even the English are envious ...
And so finally to one last short dose of celebratory "Ned" ...
Say what? All the joy and sweet triumphs and victories, and such a sour end note? Emperor Xi on the march, and "Ned" full of saucy doubts and fears? Shame on you bromancer, for bringing the nostalgic trip to such a bummer conclusion ...
The pond refuses to blink. There might be horror, betrayal, treachery and bloodshed, but the United States has so much to offer.
Please forgive the pond if it retires for a good lie down, with a couple of restorative tablets, washed down by bleach ... and if we can do that for a virus, surely we can manage the same for emperor Xi ...
My Source sent me a message that a mighty work, titled ‘The Great Covid Panic: What Happened, Why, And What To Do Next’ would be on sale in September, AND had been reviewed in the Flagship. Summarising, the Source wrote that ‘the authors’ (which is how the reviewer refers to them) do not think highly of lockdowns’. OK - it IS a review in the Flagship.
ReplyDeleteThe authors? Paul Frijters, Gigi Foster and Michael Baker. Ah - is becoming clearer. Frijters has been pursuing his own way in the study of economics for most of his (at times turbulent) career. Gigi Foster - well, a media star, chosen not only by ABC but by Alan Jones, although with the same message for both - not nearly enough people are prepared to die from Covid in the name of freedom.
The more interesting speculation between self and Source was the publisher - Brownstone Institute. Seems the Flagship reviewer referred to ‘Brownstone Publishing’, suggesting a cosy body to be found to the north of the Land of the Free - but - who are they?
Few false leads, but we get to the ‘The Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research is a nonprofit organization founded May 2021’ Its blurb seems a bit fixated on ‘lockdowns’, but it does identify its founder, one Jeffrey Tucker. Jeffrey has a fairly extensive entry in the ‘Wiki’, with links to other ‘Wiki’ sites that identify misinformation on the origins, treatment and responses to Covid. Jeffrey has form.
Invitations to donate to the ‘cause’, but no information on who has put up the initial money - no surprise there.
The Institute also has half-a-dozen ‘Senior Scholars’ including, of course - Gigi Foster.
So not quite Connor Court - nope, a revered Research Institute, which has been with us for, oh, almost three months, publishing its own members, to give that extra authority to the regular reptilian contributors. No doubt it will be more widely quoted by those same ‘opinion writers’ once it is decently on sale.
It all just goes round’n’round, doesn’t it?
As you're probably well aware, Chad, Frijters is still a regular at Club Troppo and was at one time a "colleague" of John Quiggin. Indeed it was he who introduced me to that wonderful concept, QALYs (to which can be added HALYs and DALYs).
DeleteGB - have always been pleased to read Frijters' contributions, and to try to follow where his inquiring mind has taken him. Wary of Gigi, as we watch her presentation to the Victorian inquiry, which apparently included a single sheet of paper on some considerations for risk assessment, become transformed in her own mind into a long, detailed, comprehensive risk assessment, applicable to actual circumstances in Victoria, which was totally ignored by the Victorian government. Yeah, nah.
DeleteYes, I have, from time to time, read some of Frijter's contributions with interest - until he got on to his "Covid denialism/do nothingism" [to quote JQ] trip.
DeleteAnd he did destroy the 'Howard quibble' over Tampa: when Howard claimed about his children overboard lies that because he honestly believed them he wasn't lying. You have to knowingly present falsehoods as truth in order to be "lying" as opposed to just being "mistaken".
Paul considered that if somebody who can command the resources of a nation's military and public service can't get a little bit of fact checking done before dispensing falsehoods, then he is, at the very least, guilty of a moral equivalent of lying and is therefore just as guilty as if he had actually, knowingly offended.
Nice work, but it never really caught on.
I admit, I was tempted to ask the Source about the contribution from Ms Ton-yee-nee which referred to - I think I have this right - a 'display of guts' from Gladys, but, well, as a piece of English expression, that phrase already slips images into the memory banks which no amount of slow meditation on a white rose-bud, opening slowly, can replace. And Ms Ton (if I may be so familiar) says she is in the PR business.
ReplyDeleteOops - 'show of guts'. Still does not dislodge the unpleasant image
ReplyDelete"Ah yes, the page 3 girls, a handy supplement to Dame Slap's rant about not trusting women ..."
ReplyDeleteIt's all about that wonderful, incontrovertible "lived experience" that Dame Slap is such a convinced believer in, DP. After all, who could think that Slappy's "lived experience" wasn't so universal and extensive as to have taught her everything it's possible to know about anything.
Just great to have another Gracie post and her dealing with an aspect of Covid I've seen absolutely no mention of by anybody else: Worker's Comp ! And so very many claims already, and surely many thousands more to come.
ReplyDeleteI notice Gracie says: "Of the claims, 809 came from Victoria, reflecting the high numbers of infections last year ..." but I see that today, NSW copped 1218 infected cases versus Victoria's 96. So what will the Workers Comp payouts, and premiums, amount to when Victoria has gone on to 1218 cases daily and NSW has gone on to maybe 5 or 6 thousand or even more ? After all, we can't have Gladys 'saviour of the nation' Berejiklian being outdone by Dictator Dan, can we.
Just as well there is a rational, sensible observer such as Gracie about to help us keep our minds on the really important stuff. But how will the ANZUS nation ever manage to get up a medical expenses bill - for a Covid victim - to over $11million - and presuming that's US$ which means about Au$14.67million. We would have to really pull out all the stops to match that. No 'gold standard' there.
Really not worth making any comment on the Bromancer today, his effort is just a splenetic recrap of all the anti-Biden 'own the Libs' rubbish that Faux Noise (plus others not even deserving of being named) has been spewing for many months now. Yeah, I reckon Biden and his lot screwed up somewhat, but not nearly as badly as the reptiles and wingnuts want to 'credit' them with.
ReplyDeleteJust for some consideration (if in doubt, ask Gracie for a comment) if the Biden lot have really stuffed up, how come the Yanquis have managed to "evacuate and facilitate the evacuation of" 109,200 people since August 14th to Friday 27th.